TSIT ■ New Delhi
The Centre has formulated an action plan to promote exports of millets and its value-added products, an official statement said on Thursday. To promote shipment of nutri-cereals, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry through its apex agricultural export promotion body Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has prepared a comprehensive strategy to promote Indian millet exports across the globe commencing December 2022.
The millets export promotion programme also comes at the backdrop of the proposal of India that was supported by 72 countries which lead to the United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA) declaring 2023 as International Year of Millets (IYoM) on March 5, 2021.
‘’The government is currently organising IYoM-2023 at domestic and international level to popularize Indian millets as well as its value-added products across the world and make it a peoples’ movement,’’ the statement said.
For exports of Indian millets’ promotion, centre has planned to facilitate participation of exporters, farmers and traders in 16 international trade expos and buyer seller meets (BSMs).
‘’As per the government’s robust strategy to promote millets, Indian missions abroad would be roped in branding and publicity of Indian millets, identification of international chefs as well as potential buyers such as departmental stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets for organizing B2B meetings and direct tie-ups,’’ the statement said.
In addition, Ambassadors of Foreign missions in India of the targeted countries and potential importers would also be invited to showcase various millet-based products, including Ready to Eat millet products and facilitate B2B meetings, it said.
APEDA has planned to organize millet promotional activities in South Africa, Dubai, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Sydney, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom and United States of America by facilitating participation of different stakeholders from India in some of the significant food shows, Buyer Seller Meets and Road Shows.
As part of the promotion of Indian millets, APEDA has planned to showcase millets and its value added product at various global platforms such as Gulfood 2023, Foodex, Seoul Food & Hotel Show, Saudi Agro Food, Fine Food Show in Sydney (Australia), Belgium’s Food & Beverages Show, Germany’s BioFach and Anuga Food Fair, San Francisco’s Winter Fancy Food Show, etc, the statement said.APEDA would also organise food sampling and tasting at the retail level and in key local bazaars of targeted countries where individual, household consumers can gain familiarity with millet products.
For promotion of Indian millets and its value-added products, centre has developed 30 e-Catalogues on each of the targeted countries comprising information on various Indian millets and range of their value-added products available for export, list of active exporters, start-ups, FPOs and importer/retail chain/hyper markets, etc that to be circulated to the Indian Embassy abroad, importers, exporters, start ups and stakeholders, the statement said. Government is also mobilizing start-ups for export promotion of value-added products in the Ready to Eat (RTE) and Ready to Serve (RTS) category such as noodles, pasta, breakfast cereals mix, biscuits, cookies, snacks, sweets, etc.
As per the centre’s millet promotion strategy, major international retail supermarkets like Lulu group, Carrefour, Al Jazira, Al Maya, Walmart, etc. would also be roped in to establish millet corner for branding and promotion of millets, the statement said.
